When I left off, Alex and I had just taken off from RWB in the 964 Rough Soul; but it wasn’t long before we were stopped on the side of the road with engine trouble. Aside from the car having a hard time idling, the car was having a difficult time turning over. Eventually it just gave out all together. Narrowing it down to a bad alternator, we pulled into a nearby conbini and called Nakai.
Gary, who was behind us, followed us into the parking lot with Nakai close behind in the support van. We were lucky that we were still really close to the shop so that if it did turn out to be the alternator, or something more serious we wouldn’t be stranded for too long.
Turns out the alternator wasn’t the issue, but something as simple as a dead battery. Nakai said he was having trouble with it earlier in the week as well. So while he went back to his shop to grab a new battery, I snapped a few pictures in the parking lot…
Lovers Rough idling by with Yoko and Nakai in the background.
We eventually got the battery changed out, and with a couple high speed blasts down the expressway, we met up with the rest of the caravan at a PA.
We chit chatted a bit until we all eventually made our way inside to eat; but not before I took a few pictures of Cynthia. I really enjoy the look of these cars pictured in black and white. Seems to fit them well.
This isn’t a food blog, so I’ll skip the pictures of Ramen I got. Once everyone had a full stomach, we started our second and last leg of our caravan to Motegi.
Some of the Porsches weren’t equipped with ETC, so we had to go through the cash lanes of the toll booths. Which meant, if you didn’t have a passenger, you had to get out of your car and walk to the other side because these Porsches are left hand drive. It doesn’t sound that funny in writing, but if you were there you’d probably laugh; or maybe we were just sleep deprived.
Eventually we made our way off the expressway and onto the back roads that lead to Twin Ring.
Yay ~ Motegi! All 6 cars made it to our garage no problem (aside from our battery), and were put to rest for another 6 or 7 hours until the beginning of the Endurance. Most of us used this time to apply new vinyl, some tire stencils, take passenger seats out, remove plates, install fire extinguishers, etc. After all this was done though, I used the opportunity to take a couple pictures in the garage.
These wheels wouldn’t be clean for long.
Rough Soul, before getting Alex’s vinyl treatment.
The catch phrase of all the cars, “What the world needs now is love”; was incredibly good. On the lead car though, Nakai had a special vinyl made up, which was even better.
“What the world needs now is Rough”
Matt, Naoyuki, Alex, and Gary laughing at something…
I can’t get enough of the new wings on the 993’s.
One of the other 993’s participating in our group; I Amsterdam.
NDF Yankee Style 993 ~
Next door to us was the Idlers poster car, which I believe belongs to Mr. Idlers himself Seike-san. Although he wasn’t driving in the event, as he was responsible for it.
Also nearby was Noji’s 86 entry.
As the sun was starting to come up, it was almost time to attend the drivers meeting; of which I understood a marginal 37% of as it was given by Seike in Japanese. Good thing Matt and Noogz were there to translate for me; it helped that motor sports is a pretty universal sport. I know how to conduct myself on circuit, and that’s a large part of racing.
The cars were prepped, the drivers were restless (literally), and it was almost time to start the first hour of madness. Next part of this mini-series we’ll head to the circuit. Thanks for visiting!